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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27864453">Hey Jude</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/HecoHansen31/pseuds/HecoHansen31'>HecoHansen31</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>'Cause Maybe I'd Still Feel Alive Without You [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Mention of Sexual Harrasment, Physical Abuse, Probably OOC! Damian, Probably OOC! Dick, Rigid Upbringing, Troubled Past, mention of rape, mention of violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 23:59:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Rape/Non-Con</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>14,207</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27864453</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/HecoHansen31/pseuds/HecoHansen31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In the end we can be someone’s hero through a simple gesture.</p><p>And Judith can’t definitely pass up the opportunity to save Nightwing’s life, at a gala.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dick Grayson/Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>'Cause Maybe I'd Still Feel Alive Without You [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2028177</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. A Cup Of Hot Cocoa</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Before you go on, I just want to put a huge disclaimer on here:</p><p>I am not a true expert, although I have followed a few comics and done a few researches about the various universe, so if anything is considered inaccurate, just send me a DM/an ask, just please do remember to be kind and not attacking.</p><p>This is inspired by this post!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p></p><div class="">
  <p>
    <em>“I guess you never know, never know </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>And if you wanted me, you really should've showed </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>And if you never bleed, you're never gonna grow </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>And it's alright now”</em>
  </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>
    <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DKsZ6tROaVOQ&amp;t=YmFlZGUyYjU0ZWZkOTFiZjI5MTM2YjU5MmQxODZjZjZkZjZkYjUzMSwzMDJjY2EyYjYwYjdhZTFkYWE5MDQ0ZDA1MDYyODY0YzcwZDgwZjhl&amp;ts=1607027382">
      <strong>“The 1″ by Taylor Swift</strong>
    </a>
  </p>
  <p>Judith didn’t like this kind of things but she guessed that she couldn’t truly choose to refuse a formal invite to a Wayne gala, when Bruce Wayne was the sole reason why she wasn’t rotting anymore in prison.</p>
  <p>Although technically she had insisted that she was just fine staying there.</p>
  <p>She got peace, she got books and she got free food.</p>
  <p>Her fellow inmates respected her, not that she had any kind of fear of not being able to overtake anybody that came her way, but she preferred to avoid any drama, since she was already ‘technically sentenced’ to a life in jail.</p>
  <p>For murder.</p>
  <p>In enormous numbers.</p>
  <p>The fact that she had done so only to protect the ones closest to her and repay the League of Assassins didn’t matter.</p>
  <p>Neither to the judge, neither to her.</p>
  <p>And also, right now she felt uncomfortable at the prospect of being able to walk on Earth, meanwhile others couldn’t.</p>
  <p>Because of her.</p>
  <p>She had been taught much.</p>
  <p>But how to deal with guilt was something that she had yet to learn.</p>
  <p>And she didn’t think that she ever will.</p>
  <p>So, right now, enjoying the riches of Gotham wasn’t her favorite activity, but she honestly believed that it would have been rude to refuse Bruce Wayne’s offer, when she lived in his manor, although under the pretense of her being there to help with Damian, his son.</p>
  <p>The child, who stood nearby his father, looked as interested in everything that was happening around him, as her.</p>
  <p>And when she met his eyes, it was rather obvious that he wanted an excuse to disappear from the event.</p>
  <p>Exactly like her.</p>
  <p>She was halfway through coming up with some bullshit about ‘his curfew’ and ‘how grumpy he became’ when he was annoyed, when she noticed that somebody else was asking more urgently for her help.</p>
  <p>Dick Grayson was currently cornered by a pretty brunette, much closer for true comfort and when Judith’s grey eyes met his light ones, he shot her a pleading look, although his entire stance replayed the one of somebody ‘who knew how to handle these situations’.</p>
  <p>Which she doubted.</p>
  <p>Hence, Judith moved closer to him, right when the woman started the uncomfortable touching.</p>
  <p>The brunette pushed an arm up and down Dick’s arms, suggestively moving onto straight up groping the gorgeous body of the police officer, in a way that wasn’t complimenting in the slightest but felt more like the woman was taking what she wanted.</p>
  <p>Without asking.</p>
  <p>“… mind if I sweep in, sweetheart?” Judith muttered softly, gently grabbed Dick’s arm, the one that the woman was touching and although she felt Dick’s tense muscles underneath her grip, they relaxed immediately once the woman backed off, surprised by Judith’s arrival “… you have left me alone for quite too long”.</p>
  <p>Judith was a calculating actress.</p>
  <p>Many of her jobs were based onto her infiltrating in the target’s life before the actual killing.</p>
  <p>Those were the jobs she hated the most, because as much as so many people were discovered to be horrible and deserving of the end she graced them with, many others turned out to be civilians who had just angered the wrong people.</p>
  <p>And knowing them made the job more difficult.</p>
  <p>But Judith had treasured that difficulty.</p>
  <p>It had meant that the League hadn’t managed to do what they had intended to.</p>
  <p>They hadn’t made her a weapon, yet.</p>
  <p>But in these cases, the soft pose of a languid lover was needed.</p>
  <p>And she had spent years to perfect it.</p>
  <p>“… and who is this?” she made sure to accompany the words with a slight move of her legs making the deep crimson fabric of the elegant dress rid up onto her thigh, showing through its slit the gun holster she was wearing.</p>
  <p>Security above everything else.</p>
  <p>If Bruce Wayne employed an ex-assassin, he might as well get the most of her services.</p>
  <p>The woman immediately noticed it.</p>
  <p>And paled impressively.</p>
  <p>“Ahem… I just… me and Dick know each other…” tried the woman, her uneasiness definitely seeping through the elegant clothes she was wearing.</p>
  <p>“… oh, that’s adorable” Judith’s dismissive tone had been perfectioned since her time in the League and modelled after Talia’s own, although the thought of that made her nose stick up in disgust.</p>
  <p>Which went well with her quirked eyebrow, asking for more explanations to the woman, who instead simply gave up onto trying to mutter more, but faked an excuse at the same time that Judith gave her one of her own to bring Dick away.</p>
  <p>If there was one thing that she thought could be applied to fights and social occasions it was that defeat always came in who had the last laugh.</p>
  <p>And she intended to be the winner.</p>
  <p>So, she turned to Dick, careful to avoid touch but bringing herself close to him as she moved to lightly shield the boy from the eyes of the woman, before she looked at him in those perfect blue eyes to convey more properly the message she had on the tip of her tongue.</p>
  <p>“Richard…” her wanton tone was lightly mixed with a hint of annoyance “… can you please come with me to convince Damian to go back home? He seems to have such a good time, but his bedtime is extremely close! And you are so good with him!”.</p>
  <p>Dick did turn around to take a look of pure worry to Damian, since hearing the fact that he was having a fun at the gala might have startled him, knowing the antisocial personality of his youngest brother.</p>
  <p>But a quick look at a Damian still sporting an annoyed frown did calm him down, and he gently smiled back at Judith, as if to say ‘got your hint, sweetheart’ (because the nickname just belonged to those sinful eyes, Judith had to admit) and nodded, saluting almost rudely the woman with whom he was talking, only gifting her a sole wave of hand.</p>
  <p>As dismissive as Judith’s last smirk.</p>
  <p>Then they both moved side by side, close but not touching, towards Damian, who was more than happy to accept Judith’s plan as Dick charmed the few gentlemen that were around Bruce, graciously excusing them, as they left.</p>
  <p>And Judith could finally let that smirk disappear from her face.</p>
  <p>Her cheeks were beginning to hurt.</p>
  <p>“You should have come to me before” muttered annoyedly Damian, as he escaped Dick’s grab onto his back, moving to turn around and face Judith who simply ruffled his hair, much to his annoyance.</p>
  <p>“… I should have left you there, to deal with those sharks all alone, little bird” she shot back, with a cunning smirk, the same one that belonged to her time on the League.</p>
  <p>The ones that she could share only with Damian, because they were too pointy and cutting for mere humans.</p>
  <p>“… don’t annoy Judith, Damian” simply reprimanded him Dick, as Judith shoot him a light smirk of gratitude.</p>
  <p>“Grayson stay out of stuff that doesn’t belong to you” shot back with Damian but with no true bite and it didn’t surprise Judith when he fell asleep onto Judith’s laps on the ride back home, as the girl softly passed her hand through his gelled hair, as she always did when they were allowed a bit of time together back in the League.</p>
  <p>Judith needed a bit of help in getting him out of the car.</p>
  <p>Not only Damian had certainly grown up, but she hadn’t been training for a long time, so she was more than happy to let Dick expertly handle it, who swiftly pushed the child onto his shoulder, cradling him attentively meanwhile Judith was careful to close the door of the elegant sleek car they had borrowed from Bruce for the evening.</p>
  <p>Alfred greeted them silently, once they were inside the Manor, silently warned by Dick of the asleep teenager in his arms, meanwhile Judith stayed behind to get out of the uncomfortable heels she was wearing.</p>
  <p>She saluted Alfred, as the cat of the same name came to greet her, not finding his master nearby and deciding on settling on the thing that was the closest to the tiny midget, purring as Judith lightly scratched his ears, and even pushing himself on his back to offer his belly for a few belly rubs.</p>
  <p>And Dick Grayson found Judith, a lethal assassin, in the compromising position of caressing a rather spiteful cat, that immediately hissed at him, as he came forward trying to get the girl’s attention.</p>
  <p>“… he is in his bed, basically passed out” murmured Dick, referring to Damian “… I do think that having a break from patrol definitely stressed him out”.</p>
  <p>Judith wanted to tell him that technically every assassin in the League was trained to survive without sleep for at least a week.</p>
  <p>But every time she said this kind of things, she saw the faces of the ones around her.</p>
  <p>Pity and the sudden realization of who she truly was.</p>
  <p>So, she simply nodded and raising her heels, as Alfred the Cat lightly brushed his hairy body against her calves and moved to get up to wish Damian ‘goodnight’.</p>
  <p>She bid ‘goodnight’ firstly to Alfred who answered immediately back with a light ‘goodnight, Mrs. Judith’ and she was halfway through doing the same towards Dick, thinking that he’d be anxious to either join Tim, who was on patrol, or to go back to Blundhaven, since he lived there, although he had been visiting the Manor often since Damian had moved in there.</p>
  <p>But he stopped her quickly, grabbing gently her wrist.</p>
  <p>Judith’s mind rushed to the fifteen ways she knew of exiting such a grip.</p>
  <p>And only twelve involved violence.</p>
  <p>But then Dick spoke, and she was remembered that she wasn’t faced with an enemy or a target.</p>
  <p>“… would you enjoy something to drink, as my treat?” she honestly didn’t understand the question, although she had been taught by a young age by her witch of a grandma how to properly behave in the high society.</p>
  <p>But Dick’s question still didn’t make sense.</p>
  <p>Unless he wanted to bed her.</p>
  <p>Which didn’t seem the first option to go with, since he looked definitely flustered and without the seductive grin that he had seen so many times on his pretty face.</p>
  <p>“… I just… to talk about … I mean actually to thank you” was he blabbering?</p>
  <p>Was Dick Grayson, certified playboy, being nervous in front of Judith?</p>
  <p>And she hadn’t even a knife to his throat.</p>
  <p>“Of course” she thought of sparing him from more embarrassment “… I’ll check on Damian and then we can have a drink in here, if you don’t mind”.</p>
  <p>The thought of walking in anything that wasn’t barefoot made her extremely uncomfortable.</p>
  <p>“Oh, yeah of course” and like that he continued on gently keeping the grip on your wrist, till Judith lightly tried to escape it and he relented bubbling up a light ‘sorry’.</p>
  <p>“No worries” and they stood painfully in front of each other, till she added “I’ll go now…”.</p>
  <p>“Yeah, of course”.</p>
  <p>And she was glad to check onto Damian as a way to calm herself,</p>
  <p>Because if Dick was blushing, her cheeks weren’t as innocent as they had at first been.</p>
  <p>She gently checked the child, grateful that Dick had taken care of undressing him and putting him in pajamas, rigorously animal-themed, and had got him to slip in under his comforter.</p>
  <p>She simply adjusted a thicker blanket over the bed, knowing that although they were both trained to resist the harshest cold, it didn’t mean they should.</p>
  <p>She finished by gently kissing his temple.</p>
  <p>It was a gesture that years hadn’t changed.</p>
  <p>The first time that she had done it, she had been much more innocent than she was right now.</p>
  <p>She had been assigned to Damian’s protection since she wasn’t of any use on the field, but she had almost finished her training enough to be entrusted with one of the most precious treasures of the League, Talia’s child, Damian.</p>
  <p>At a certain point the baby had been uneasy although he was barely a child, and she had done the sole thing that she remembered her mother doing with her.</p>
  <p>She had told him a story.</p>
  <p>And when his cries had eased, she had been caught in the illusion of memory and delved onto his temple to kiss him, exactly as her mother had done with her back when she was a chubby five year old with pigtails and a for ever stained mouth.</p>
  <p>She had been badly punished for having dared such a gesture.</p>
  <p>But she had just learned to be sneakier.</p>
  <p>And she liked thinking that Damian wasn’t completely a monster because of that.</p>
  <p>Although she knew that Dick was technically waiting for her downstairs, she still took a few minutes to change into something more comfortable, since the underwear that she had been wearing underneath her dress was extremely uncomfortable and she was just happy to slip in her oversized pajama.</p>
  <p>Rigorously Wonder Woman themed.</p>
  <p>She knew that it had made a few eyebrows raise as the inhabitants of the Manor had taken in her ‘casual’ attire for the first time.</p>
  <p>She didn’t know whether they were offended that it wasn’t bat themed or the fact that they didn’t think of ever seeing a trained assassin wearing comfortable clothes that weren’t skintight leather suits or tight gala dresses.</p>
  <p>She then moved to adjust everything swiftly, used to taking care of everything that was around her, in order for herself not to leave anything behind or forget about something.</p>
  <p>Back then she was used to collect after herself not to leave any traces of herself, around, but right now she mostly did because she saw perfectly how close Alfred was to a mental breakdown at the sole thought of another inhabitant of the Manor coming home with a ripped suit or dirty clothes.</p>
  <p>That they didn’t even bother to hide or put in the proper places, instead leaving them in the first place they could,</p>
  <p>She found putting everything back in order somehow comforting, mostly because it was a moment that felt mechanical and thoughtless to her, so she could properly focus simply on setting the dress back on the hanger and pushing it onto the chair in a way that wouldn’t have gotten it too wrinkled, although she’d have to ask Alfred to bring him to laundry.</p>
  <p>Her knives and guns strapped in various places of her body were put in the safe that had been installed in her room, although she did know that she wasn’t allowed to have more than a certain amount, because as much as Bruce did see that she wouldn’t have hurt Damian, he still wasn’t unsure about the entire family.</p>
  <p>Considering how much they could be annoying.</p>
  <p>Although Judith had sworn after she had helped causing the downfall of the League that she’d never wield a weapon with the purpose of hurting.</p>
  <p>Only defense.</p>
  <p>The last thing to be put back in its proper place were her heels, pushed back in the elegant box they had come with before it was set back in the enormous armoire she had been gifted.</p>
  <p>Then, she pushed her hair up, meanwhile she moved downstairs, after she had slipped in the comfortable slipper she had found on one of the few trips that she had taken around Gotham, when she had accompanied Damian on a shopping trip.</p>
  <p>The slippers were comfortable enough that they mimicked the feeling of going barefoot but still kept their feet, the coldest parts of her body, warm.</p>
  <p>She reached Dick in the kitchen, where he seemed to almost be waiting for her, having discarded the elegant jacket he had been wearing, a dark velvet masterpiece with bluish sparkles that gave to the whole outfit a flamboyant charm that definitely matched his personality.</p>
  <p>But without his jacket, his white shirt and loosened frac just heightened his ample torso, making Judith almost wonder what it’d feel to touch it, although he had some kind of slimness to his muscles, probably due to his training as an acrobat, having enhanced his flexibility.</p>
  <p>Judith definitely wouldn’t have denied that he was quite the specimen.</p>
  <p>But there was a difference between looking at him as a pretty object that would have been nice to put on their own bedside table and appreciating from afar the elegance of a well-built body with its own story.</p>
  <p>Judith knew a thing or two about that.</p>
  <p>“… sorry if I took a bit of time, I changed into something more comfortable” it was her way to make him aware of her presence, without startling, although he still looked quite shocked by her presence “… and sorry for startling you, I am kind of used to avoid making noise when I walk”.</p>
  <p>“I’ll blame it on the whiskey” Dick muttered at the last affirmation, welcoming her to sit in front of him on the small table in the kitchen, a choice for which she was grateful because it was smaller than the one in the dining room and less intimate “… and don’t worry, I kind of wished that I had brought a change, because Gosh do this pant itch”.</p>
  <p>She laughed at that, hiding it behind her hand, something that her grandmother had taught her, since ‘ladies weren’t in any way meant to be loud and rude’.</p>
  <p>They should take the smallest place and just smile as they waved the guests in and out.</p>
  <p>“… I sometimes miss the League comfortable attack attire” she mumbled, immediately regretting the phrase, but Dick didn’t seem to understand anything apart the obvious humor in it.</p>
  <p>“So, what is your poison?” he asked, as he moved to the carboard, the higher one that Damian struggled to reach.</p>
  <p>They had moved all the alcoholic beverages there, after they had noticed  mostly because Damian had once tried to create a Molotov, and from then, Alfred had moved the whole collection of elegant bottles in the highest cardboard and even hid a few bottles other places.</p>
  <p>Judith had a half-finished bottle of tequila in her own room, hidden in the stash of her panties.</p>
  <p>And one of white wine in the carboard with her ‘sanitary products’.</p>
  <p>But that night she honestly didn’t think that she could stomach any alcohol, mostly because she had gotten a bit of champagne already and she could already feel her whole system trying to push it outside.</p>
  <p>Technically she was supposed to have a rather resistant system to drugs and alcohol and meanwhile the former had been obtained, Judith had developed a rather heavy reaction to alcoholic beverages in big quantities.</p>
  <p>She could easily drink under the table everyone, but the next morning she would be stuck in bed, trying to heave out everything that was inside of her stomach.</p>
  <p>“There should be a few sachets of soluble hot cocoa in the cardboard on your left” she instructed Dick, almost as if they had known each other for more than the single month that Judith had lived with in the Manor and Dick wasn’t a constant figure in Bruce Wayne’s house, having his own place at Blundhaven.</p>
  <p>Where she thought that he had to come back by the end of the night.</p>
  <p>“… thank you for sparing me from the need to appear cool in front of an assassin that holds her liquor perfectly…” Dick even faked a light breath of relief at that and again Judith smirked behind her hand, but her eyes weren’t hidden although the kitchen was quite shadowy, since the only light switched on was the lampshade on top of the table.</p>
  <p>Creating a rather romantic atmosphere.</p>
  <p>Dick closed the cardboard with the alcoholic beverages and moved onto the one she had pointed out, getting two soluble hot cocoa satchels and two mugs.</p>
  <p>“I do appreciate you, knowing your limits” Judith shot back, moving to team up with Dick and getting the milk out of the fridge meanwhile the man collected the other few tools they needed “… and if you want you can always correct yours with vodka, I discovered it was rather popular back in Russia when I was on a job”.</p>
  <p>“… that seems… very Russian indeed” he muttered, opening the small boxes, meanwhile Judith poured enough milk for two portions in the pitcher before Dick mixed it with the hot cocoa formula in order for it to properly mix up, before they pushed it onto the lighted up stove.</p>
  <p>“… but the best hot cocoa I ever had was when I was still in Vienna with my parents” she didn’t know why she was suddenly talking about her life before the League, before her parents’ death and her grandmother taking her in.</p>
  <p>She usually didn’t talk about it with anyone.</p>
  <p>It was just too private, and she hung onto those memories the same way a man falling would have to the first thing that would have saved him from a horrible death.</p>
  <p>And yet, she felt like Dick’s curious gaze set up on her was just pushing her to say more.</p>
  <p>“My mother worked as a curator in an art gallery and I didn’t see her very much, but I do remember my dad bringing me to her on Wednesdays, when she hadn’t too many things to do and she would let me stay in the office as I pretended to help her and as a reward she’d get me hot cocoa from a bar nearby” Judith couldn’t bring herself to think about the fact that it had been ‘their bar’.</p>
  <p>And that a few months later her last hot cocoa with her parents, she’d be in Gotham, a grey city, as an orphan.</p>
  <p>“That seems truly adorable” muttered Dick, as his eyes definitely showed his difficulty in imagining Judith as a child.</p>
  <p>Her grandmother hadn’t shot many photos of her, and Judith was actually grateful for that, since she had been a gangly little beastie, too slim to be healthy and with a color of skin that was painful dull instead of the rich tan that she had gained from her father’s Latin blood.</p>
  <p>And the few little photos of her childhood had been shattered by the League, since there couldn’t be any traces that could link to her life before that.</p>
  <p>She had still saved one of a young and chubby, seated on her father’s lap as her mother stood behind them looking with an annoyed smirk, probably because her father had told her something silly, such as how ‘he’d give the moon, to her princesa’.</p>
  <p>“… it is a nice memory” she was simply able to blabber up, and moved onto pushing herself next to the stove, avoiding the burning one, meanwhile Dick the same on the opposite side, side to side and awkwardly distant.</p>
  <p>“… thank you for what you did out there” it was unexpected, since Judith in the end wasn’t ever thanked in her line of job.</p>
  <p>And even if it happened, it was done in a crass and sarcastic way.</p>
  <p>“You are welcome” her answer was awkward and she couldn’t help the blush that reappeared on her cheeks and she was glad to be able to hide her physical reaction with the short curtain of her hair, fashioned in a short bob that lined up to the lines of her jaw, highlighting her cutting figures, which she had inherited from her beloved mother.</p>
  <p>And grandmother.</p>
  <p>“It isn’t… something that many would do…” the whole argument seemed awkward for him, almost as if he wasn’t used to talking about it.</p>
  <p>As if he shouldn’t talk about it.</p>
  <p>“… many think that… it is… something that should be alright” the embarrassment was evident in his voice, as if he believed what he said, but he had been many times told that he shouldn’t have thought it this way.</p>
  <p>As if his feelings had been many times downplayed and thought invalid.</p>
  <p>Everything downgraded to a joke.</p>
  <p>And Judith knew perfectly that sensation.</p>
  <p>Her grandmother’s sole goal in life had been submitting her grandchild’s will to her own, getting her to follow each and every stupid rule she had grown up with, imposing them onto Judith’s life, no matter the fact that she wanted them or not.</p>
  <p>Even going as far as pushing them onto Judith through corporal punishment.</p>
  <p>The effects of the Lazarus pit, although downplayed by its water being diluted and washed down on Judith’s still breathing body, had eased any small scar that she might have gained through the training at the League and some from ‘clumsy teenage accidents’.</p>
  <p>But not the ones of the grandmother’s belt, on her back.</p>
  <p>She didn’t know if it had been because of some limitation of the Pit or some resistance of her own body.</p>
  <p>And they served as a painful reminder of what she had gone through.</p>
  <p>“Honestly Dick…” she pushed herself off the counter to be able to face him, although they were both lightly shadowed by the darkness of the kitchen, giving some kind of hazy atmosphere to the pair that stood in the kitchen.</p>
  <p>But Judith could still notice the fact that some kind of intrinsic sadness and resignation appeared in Dick’s eyes, as if he expected Judith to say something that he heard many and many times over.</p>
  <p>“… just because others think that you should enjoy it, it doesn’t mean that you should, if you don’t feel comfortable” his eyes immediately were painted with surprise “… and take it from somebody who had her body autonomy completely disrupted”.</p>
  <p>Dick’s laugh was croaked, but his eyes held a brightness that made also Judith feel somehow satisfied of her actions.</p>
  <p>“… thank you” it was soft and Dick lightly moved an hand forward between them, obviously offering it as some kind of sign of respect to Judith, right when the pitcher screamed loudly revealing that the hot cocoa was ready and Judith was almost grateful for the horrible sound, because she didn’t know what to do honestly.</p>
  <p>Should she take Dick’s hand?</p>
  <p>With her own blood-stained ones.</p>
  <p>“Oh Gosh, I honestly can’t wait to slurp it!”.</p>
  <p>Judith knew that she must have sounded obnoxious, it was a technique that she had been taught meanwhile she was at the League, since as her grandmother said ‘nobody wanted to deal with a loud woman’.</p>
  <p>“… nothing better than hot cocoa after annoying galas”.</p>
  <p>If Dick was disappointed by the rejected hand, he didn’t show it, mimicking her cheery attitude as he commented and told her old story about cold Robins and Alfred having always a cup of hot cocoa ready.</p>
  <p>They brought the mugs at the table, once they managed to pour the liquid solution in them grabbing a few tissues, again side-by-side, as if they were old friends who knew each other since childhood and not two complete strangers.</p>
  <p>But somehow there was one thing that was common to both of them.</p>
  <p>And soon the comfortable silence was interrupted by Dick’s question about that.</p>
  <p>“… did you… you don’t have to answer… did it happen to you, too?” there was definitely an uneasiness in the question, correlated both to the fact that what they were talking about was an extreme taboo both for females and males.</p>
  <p>And he was careful to avoid touching any boundaries that she might have.</p>
  <p>And as somebody whose boundaries had been shredded, Judith did appreciate that.</p>
  <p>“I…” she had never thought it as anything else other than ‘her job’, because in the end when it happened to her, it was just a mean to get something.</p>
  <p>Being pretty and compelling was enough to lower the defenses of men but being pliant and submissive was what got them to completely lose their mind and that was when Judith would push a knife through their hearts.</p>
  <p>In the end she had thought of herself in these cases as a weapon.</p>
  <p>It was easier.</p>
  <p>As they pushed themselves in Judith’s body, she’d imagine to be one with the bed or the surface underneath her.</p>
  <p>Nothing but an object.</p>
  <p>“… it did happen”.</p>
  <p>Dick’s eyes became somehow darker and she didn’t know whether it was because of rage or worry, but it didn’t last enough.</p>
  <p>His eyes became of that tender shade of empathy that she knew was the reason why Damian trusted him so harshly.</p>
  <p>It wasn’t pity.</p>
  <p>It was a survivor recognizing another one.</p>
  <p>“I am here if you want to talk about it” he simply mumbled, as Judith gently squeezed right back the offered hand.</p>
  <p>“I am here too” Judith replied, unsure of what to say, but knowing that she hoped that she could be as emotionally decent as Dick in the future, who seemed to definitely have everything under control, although he had been a bit doubting at first.</p>
  <p>That was honestly a gorgeous sight.</p>
  <p>A man who had some control and knowledge of his own emotion and darkest moments.</p>
  <p>“… what about the… brighter topics…” muttered lightly Dick, once their hands light retreated back “… Damian says that you are a restless soul on here”.</p>
  <p>“That little shit” she muttered underneath her breath but smirked lightly and a bit embarrassed by that secret being revealed to Dick, probably the person that was closest to Bruce and the first one of the Robins.</p>
  <p>She didn’t want to sound in any way not thankful of Bruce’s hospitality.</p>
  <p>But she just felt like staying the Manor without doing anything else than following like a baby born duck Damian, was… not the best feeling.</p>
  <p>It felt like she was lacking a purpose.</p>
  <p>A purpose that back then in the League she had.</p>
  <p>And constantly made her question if she had no other aim in her life than hurting people.</p>
  <p>She was good at that, apparently.</p>
  <p>She was less good at being a functional human being.</p>
  <p>“… it isn’t anything against this place…” she wanted to clarify it immediately, but Dick didn’t seem in the slightest to be in any way accusing, although a light teasing stayed on his face “… I just… feel like I am doing… nothing and I just… hate staying still on my feet”.</p>
  <p>She would have relaxed when she was dead.</p>
  <p>It just felt uneasy to have all the time of the world, when many people because of her weren’t alive anymore.</p>
  <p>“… I can understand that” Dick’s eyes were honest, and Judith felt a strange sense of relief at knowing that he wasn’t offended “… have you thought of doing something outside of the Manor?”.</p>
  <p>She had.</p>
  <p>But part of her still felt the need to be close to Damian and she didn’t know if Bruce trusted her outside of the Manor.</p>
  <p>If she was even allowed outside of it.</p>
  <p>In the end Judith couldn’t fault them for not believing her.</p>
  <p>Till a year ago, she had been one of the best blades of the League, and if anything had happened to the Al Ghoul family, the League would have passed onto her.</p>
  <p>No matter the fact that she hadn’t ever wanted to belong there.</p>
  <p>Her father’s lineage had pushed that heavy burden on her.</p>
  <p>He had wanted to escape the League to allow his future children a better life, but he had tragically failed, in the end.</p>
  <p>The League had gotten to him and Judith’s mother when she was seven, and they had waited for the girl to grow up fully, before they had snatched her far away from her world.</p>
  <p>They had waited for Judith’s grandmother to die, this way, nobody would ask for her and she’d be easier to manipulate.</p>
  <p>“I don’t know… if I would be qualified…” the League certainly gave her quite a few interesting abilities, but none that would allow be paper certification, which was what people expected when they wanted to emply somebody in their business.</p>
  <p>Back when she was with her grandmother, she had known that although her nana had  tried to keep up the appearances they didn’t have too much money, so her best shot was to gain a scholarship to study art somewhere far away, following in her mother’s footsteps as a gallery curator.</p>
  <p>And then move the fuck away from Gotham.</p>
  <p>All her dreams had been shattered and although she knew that she could have attended a college course, she was aware that it would have been expensive.</p>
  <p>And she didn’t want to depend on Bruce for more than it was necessary.</p>
  <p>She knew that he was far more kind-hearted than Talia.</p>
  <p>But that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t have wielded her for his own interests.</p>
  <p>“… you can always take a few lessons, I don’t think that Bruce would mind…”.</p>
  <p>“I don’t want to bother Bruce” her tone definitely signaled far more than she thought and Dick seemed almost knocked back by the affirmation, but didn’t in any way change the way he kept on looking at her.</p>
  <p>Interested in figuring her out.</p>
  <p>“… it is just that I want to do this on my own”.</p>
  <p>“Understandable” he muttered with something pensive in his eyes “… but would you… I mean… accept my help?”.</p>
  <p>She didn’t know what he meant, the proposal definitely not asking anything else than what it seemed.</p>
  <p>“… ahem you are very nice, Dick” she didn’t want to make him seem in any way awkward “… but I just…”.</p>
  <p>“… I won’t… I’ll keep my noise… away from your business, but…” he raised suddenly his eyes onto her and they caught the light of the lampshade above them “… but I know how it feels to be alone in this place, although it seems like the best thing in everybody’s eyes”.</p>
  <p>Judith knew Dick’s story, either by the League’s files and either through talking with Damian, who was particularly attached to the older boy, almost treating him as a brother, but she hadn’t ever thought about what would be his true feelings about all of this.</p>
  <p>Certainly, she hadn’t expected this, as he had hadn’t expected her own thoughts.</p>
  <p>“Thank you” she muttered soberly, her eyes shyly meeting his “… it’d be nice having a friend in here”.</p>
  <p>“Well, it’d be also nice having a friend that can put an AK-47 together” he shot back, and Judith couldn’t help but smirk lightly “… wait, you do know how…”.</p>
  <p>“In my sleep, with my eyes closed” she retorted, stealing one beautiful laugh from Dick Grayson.</p>
  <p>If there was one reason for her to have survived so far that laugh was definitely one.</p>
  <p>A light yawn escaped her mouth and Judith knew how unladylike it must have seemed, but Dick simply laughed at that.</p>
  <p>You do deserve a bit of sleep, Judith” he hadn’t said her name so far and she couldn’t deny that it sounded like cotton candy from his mouth.</p>
  <p>She had always thought it too cutting, too tough.</p>
  <p>In the end, her mother had chosen it because she had discovered that she was pregnant in front of the ‘Judith I’ by Gustav Klimt, the beautiful masterpiece being something that Judith herself had spied behind her mother’s legs so many times, since her mother would take her on her few free Sundays to the Belvedere, loving the museum almost as her own child.</p>
  <p>But Dick’s voice smoothed it around the edges, softening it.</p>
  <p>“… yeah, a full stomach and an harsh night… don’t mix well” she muttered, as she pushed herself away from the chair, moving to the sink to wash away the hot cocoa that remained in the cup, before putting it back in place, after drying it.</p>
  <p>Dick waited at the table, but she could feel his eyes on her body.</p>
  <p>They brought a light shiver down her spine, although it didn’t make her uncomfortable.</p>
  <p>It was pleasurable, as if he was looking after her.</p>
  <p>And when she finished the simple gesture, again her overthinking mind started going again about what she should do.</p>
  <p>If she should do something more than simply saying ‘goodbye’ to him.</p>
  <p>A part of her that belonged to the instinct that she had developed in the League told her that she should have invited him back to her room.</p>
  <p>Simply because he had been good with her.</p>
  <p>That was why she was so scared of going outside the Manor and yet felt like she had to stay there.</p>
  <p>“… goodnight” she simply muttered, in the end, waiting for Dick’s light one, barely audible, and accompanied by a light wave of his hand.</p>
  <p>And when she went to bed, Judith never felt more awake.</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Apple Pie</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Just Dick being his knight in the shining armor and saving Judith from annoying day at the Manor.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It had passed a week since the gala and thank to whatever mysterious entity existed in the world, Judith hadn’t seen Dick.</p><p>She felt honestly bad at the thought of that, since he hadn’t been unpleasant towards her and neither he had tried to take advantage of the ‘personal revelations’ that she had confessed to him, telling them to Bruce.</p><p>Which was definitely out of character for the ‘perfect son’ image that Judith had pictured of Dick.</p><p>But she guessed she might have been wrong considering that in her staying with the family, she hadn’t grown close to anyone truly and instead found herself following Damian.</p><p>The probably was that he wasn’t her duckling anymore.</p><p>But it was her the child of the two.</p><p>In the end Damian had more experience than her in the Wayne family, so she just followed him around trying to adapt herself to the lifestyle of the vigilante family, that had sworn off murder.</p><p>Except Jason.</p><p>Not that he was around much.</p><p>She was partial to Cass mostly because she was Lady Shiva’s child and she liked training with her since she was quite resourceful and strong in a way that utterly destroyed Judith and challenged her to keep her mind in the battlefield, instead of the mess that her life had become.</p><p>For her first seventeen years she had known nothing but her grandma’s strict discipline, with the few years she had spent with her parents shattered underneath her cane beatings.</p><p>The following ten years, she had been one of the many weapons in the utility belt of the ‘League of Assassin’s and now, she was supposed to think with her own mind, but to still respect Bruce Wayne’s rules.</p><p>And the fact that she spent a big chunk of time in his household didn’t help the feeling of being utterly left to her own devices and yet, held to certain standards to avoid the bat-glare.</p><p>She had asked of taking on a few of the usual patrolling routes that the boys and girls went through during their nights, but Bruce had denied her request.</p><p>And although he had said that it was mostly because he wanted her to be fully trained and acquainted to the city for that, it actually meant that he didn’t trust her in a place that wasn’t under his strict observation every day and night.</p><p>Judith had then wanted to tell him that she was known in various states as the ‘Llorona’, because she had once drowned a whole drug trafficking ring and that her training was the same as Damian since they had been trained for the same time with the same teachers.</p><p>That she wasn’t a feeble leaf.</p><p>And Bruce knew it perfectly.</p><p>She had been trained to be Talia’s heir.</p><p>And Bruce knew perfectly how dangerous that would have made Judith had she ever chosen that she wanted to go back to the League she had betrayed for Damian.</p><p>She couldn’t fully blame him.</p><p>He was doing what he thought was good for his family.</p><p>Not thinking that Judith was doing the same for her own small family, which meant Damian.</p><p>So, she was surprised when Dick came to their home that day, with an ‘indecent proposal’.</p><p>Or he titled it that way.</p><p>That day she had honestly been staring at her coffee waiting for it to reveal her the meaning of her life, when Alfred had caught her attention, suggesting that she ‘should actually drank the coffee, and then try to understand the meaning of what was left on the bottom of the mug’.</p><p>‘… thank you for the suggestion, Alfred’ she had muttered, downing the coffee in one go at that.</p><p>The burning of the liquid definitely less intense than the butler’s knowing eyes.</p><p>Other than Cass and Damian, she honestly respected Alfred the most, since he was also very respectful of her, in a ‘sassy grandpa way’ that was utterly different from the cold-hearted woman that had raised her.</p><p>And as she had put down the cup, she had been hit by the perfection of Dick Grayson appearing in the threshold of the kitchen where she consumed her breakfast alongside the butler, since it was private, and she could find whatever she needed there.</p><p>She hadn’t expected Dick in there, in the slightest.</p><p>And she wondered how he knew.</p><p>Probably thank to the little shit also known as Damian.</p><p>She knew that he and Dick had been trying to grow a relationship between each other, something she was thankful since it was rather important for Damian to be able to rely on his brothers in a business like the vigilante one.</p><p>Even more when he had literally tried to kill the others that weren’t Dick at least one time a day.</p><p>Just yesterday she had stopped him from stabbing Tim.</p><p>She knew that the lithe boy with the big brain definitely shared Bruce’s opinion about her being ‘a dangerous vixen’ (although she was sure that he was more focused on the ‘vixen’ part, blushing whenever Judith came a bit too closer to him) but he had a respect for her that was created by indeed her ability in controlling Damian.</p><p>So, they mutually respected each other.</p><p>And Dick treated her like a big fluffy dog.</p><p>A big fluffy dog that he didn’t consider a threat.</p><p>Which she didn’t like, in the slightest.</p><p>He smiled brightly when he noticed her and she hid her face behind the mug, wanting to just sprint for the door he was waiting on, almost asking for her permission.</p><p>Wait… was he… asking for her permission to join her?</p><p>Well, that was strangely a pleasant sensation.</p><p>It didn’t happen that much to her.</p><p>And Judith was thankful that Dick hadn’t straight up crowded around her, with his big puppy eyes and dreamy abs.</p><p>She wasn’t blind, so she could definitely appreciate that the boy was a masterpiece in its glory.</p><p>Judith was a masterpiece, herself.</p><p>There was no need for fake modesty in this kind of things.</p><p>But she had been built to become one.</p><p>Meanwhile there was a naturalness to Dick’s beauty that just made something in her be weirded out by the utter perfection he was.</p><p>He was simply too much.</p><p>And she could see why Damian had taken to idolize him in the small way he hid from everyone.</p><p>Dick was what everybody wanted to become.</p><p>At least during the day.</p><p>During the night, specifically the night they had spent together talking, he had been something utterly different.</p><p>Frail and vulnerable.</p><p>But not unlikeable.</p><p>Judith actually preferred that version to the one that she had in front of her eyes.</p><p>Still, she thought she could at least be polite.</p><p>“What are you doing, here, officer?”.</p><p>She could at least try to be polite.</p><p>He was still in his uniform and Judith wondered whether he had come back from a night routine or he had been stationed to Gotham for that morning and was waiting for a call.</p><p>Wait, why would she care whether he was tired from a sleepless night or would leave in a minute?</p><p>Talia would have told her that her most intense emotions were to be shut down, immediately.</p><p>But Judith refused to acknowledge even the thought of Dick having that effect on her.</p><p>“… I was actually looking for you, Judith” he muttered breathily, taking the question as an invitation to sit in front of her in the kitchen island where they had already sat, that night so far in both their memory “… do you have anything to do?”.</p><p>Technically, Judith hardly ever had anything to do, these days.</p><p>Although Alfred had suggested to her that she slept till late, considering that she stayed awake till late to welcome back Damian from patrol and to help in the bat-cave with a few of the technological things and the training of whoever wanted to spar with her, she always woke up at 8 a.m. and had the good habit to scroll through her phone for at least an hour, before joining Alfred for breakfast.</p><p>By then Damian would have barged in her room telling her that he was leaving for school and Judith most of the time had to adjust his tie or his backpack, something that she was sure he did to have that moment with her.</p><p>She couldn’t blame him, thought.</p><p>She enjoyed those moments, too.</p><p>And then she would just wander for the manor, most of the time ending up training till it was lunch and she dreaded the afternoon because there wasn’t too much to be done and for somebody who wasn’t used to having free time, she didn’t know what to do.</p><p>At first Judith had tried setting up a routine, mostly allowing herself a bit of relax and searching modern day facts through the various technological devices that she had been given, wanting to know what she had lost, which had brought her in the endless loop of TV series, and then onto the one of podcasts.</p><p>And now she was an utter mess, not knowing what to do with her life.</p><p>Sometimes Alfred would take pity on her and ask that she either went to the nearest grocery shop to get him a few things he had missed when he had gone the previous day or would give her a few cleaning tasks in Damian’s room, since the child didn’t allow him inside although he had been staying with them for a whole year.</p><p>So, no she didn’t have too much to do.</p><p>And yet, she was as suspicious for Dick’s question as she was excited for it, somehow.</p><p>“Why?” she crooked an eyebrow lightly for the confused effect.</p><p>“… you know… Damian does the same face…when he is valuing a dangerous sensation” Dick staggered, almost as if he could think he could distract her from whatever he wanted to do with her.</p><p>That sounded so badly.</p><p>Dick wasn’t… that type.</p><p>“… are you sure you aren’t Damian’s mom, instead of Talia?”.</p><p>“… you are annoying, Grayson” she shot back, with no true bite in it “… and when people admire each other, they tend to take each other’s mannerism”.</p><p>“So, does that mean that Damian admires you?” also his question didn’t hold any bite to it.</p><p>“He does, I am his favorite” it was nice to see the annoyance to your reply.</p><p>It was genuine.</p><p>“… and don’t think that you’ll distract me from your proposition, sir”.</p><p>That wasn’t exactly planned.</p><p>But her curiosity got the best of her.</p><p>It wasn’t like she was agreeing to whatever crazy plan appeared in his blue eyes.</p><p>But she was implying that she might be interested.</p><p>And that definitely got a reaction from Dick.</p><p>“Well, I do come with an ‘indecent proposal’ for you”.</p><p>“Bruce says that I am not clear to go out on the field” but she was just itching for a fight “… but we can always… don’t tell Bruce…if that’s what this ‘indecent proposal’ is about”.</p><p>“Yeah, Damian did definitely take all the bad stuff after you” that got him a reaction from Judith, her middle finger more precisely “… and I just wanted to ask if you, milady, would like to accompany me to a gallery exhibition”.</p><p>Although Judith hadn’t ever gone back to Austria after her parents’ accident, she had always visited whatever silly gallery exhibition that she had found on her missions.</p><p>She hadn’t known about a recent one in Gotham.</p><p>Not that she had actually searched them.</p><p>And was she ready to go outside after she had basically avoided any human interaction that wasn’t straight up forced onto her?</p><p>She could go feral.</p><p>And sunlight might burn her.</p><p>“… it’s in Blundhaven… we could go there and then have lunch there, if you want to” Dick’s embarrassment almost made this entire thing worth it, since his cheeks looked delightful in that pinkish shade “… if you want to, obviously… wouldn’t want to push you…”.</p><p>“I am just trying to understand whether this is a trick or not” Dick’s face wasn’t properly able to hide his disappointment at that reply, but Judith wouldn’t have hold herself back, if she had learnt one thing was that she didn’t owe man anything.</p><p>“I can give you the name of the exhibition and I mean… I am a cop… so…”.</p><p>“… you would be surprised by my distrust for cops” muttered Judith, gaining a ‘yeah, I should have expected that’ from Dick, who just offered her his phone with the advertisement of the gallery exhibition, nothing too known and definitely the kind that attracted mostly rich and annoyed people.</p><p>But fuck it.</p><p>If she spent another afternoon rearranging Damian’s toys, she would have shot herself in the head.</p><p>“Ok, we can go” she muttered, and Dick looked like he had been given the news that his puppy had been magically found and he would be able to cuddle him close, which made Judith worry of a possible hug.</p><p>And to avoid it she turned around, just as Dick sprinted forward.</p><p>Thankfully, he got the hint.</p><p>She searched for Alfred, to let him know that she would be gone probably for the afternoon and that she would need to be brought back home.</p><p>Maybe she could get Alfred to let her try out the Porsche that she had eyed since she had first arrived.</p><p>Another thing that she had always liked more than art, were fast cars and her father love for F1 had imprinted onto her, since he had first pushed her by his side on their first shared F1 race, with Judith not understanding anything, but enjoying seeing cars speed up.</p><p>She had actually drove a few beauties on her time in the League.</p><p>Talia had reprimanded her once for having destroyed a Bentley.</p><p>But she could almost see the worry on the woman’s face.</p><p>In the end she had risked injuring one of Talia’s most precious investments.</p><p>Herself.</p><p>“… I can bring you back, by the way” Dick said, probably having understood the reason behind her search for Alfred, the man having completely disappeared, probably to give them a bit of privacy, although the sole thought brought a reddish shade on Judith’s face.</p><p>“Don’t you have some baddies to take care of?” she shot back, not wanting to let this go, easily.</p><p>“Had a night shift and I am off for the day, if I don’t get called” he replied, his tone definitely being a bit less flamboyant than he had been and Judith wondered truly if she had thought too much of it “… in that case, you can stay to my apartment or get Alfred…”.</p><p>“Trying to get me in your bed, Grayson” now that was some harmless teasing that thankfully dissipated a bit of tension between them, as he laughed completely at your suggestion.</p><p>And in that moment Alfred appeared.</p><p>Definitely summoned by his name.</p><p>“Will miss. Molina finally leave the tower, today?”.</p><p>Alfred had just lost his ‘no-stabbing-in-your-sleep’ privileges.</p><p>“… she will” Judith told him with a bit of annoyance in her face that made her nose scrunch up adorably, effectively making Dick giggle “… I know you’ll find my absence heartbreaking, but Mr. Grayson over there just offered to bring me to an art exhibition”.</p><p>“Just so that you can point at random stuff on the wall and let me pretend I know what it is” shot back Dick, and as Judith turned to get back to her room, definitely needing at least to wash her face and brush her hair, since they had gotten lightly curly from the humidity of the latest December period.</p><p>And suddenly she was in front of the wall of muscles that Dick was.</p><p>She almost stumbled into him.</p><p>She was a few inches smaller than him, but he had the perfect view of her blushing brightly and annoyingly avoiding his eyes as Judith knew that she would have revealed to him that she wasn’t completely dreading time spent together.</p><p>And she couldn’t do that with a bat.</p><hr/><p>It had taken her an hour to fix her appearance.</p><p>And much to Dick’s good name, he didn’t say anything about it.</p><p>And neither about her appearance.</p><p>But the glance he sent her way as she came down the stairs was extremely warm.</p><p>Not that Judith had put up a gala dress, first of all, because it was daylight and she had been thoroughly instructed on which was the proper daywear and the proper nightwear, and secondly because she had passed all her life in clothes that were put by somebody else other than her that she now wanted to enjoy the dressing process.</p><p>And most importantly choose it.</p><p>The fact that Judith also felt uncomfortable attracting attention didn’t help.</p><p>She had settled for a comfortable sweater of a bright blue that matched well with her tanned complexion and brought out the greyness in her light eyes, matched with a pair of light-washed mom jeans, comfortable but elegant in a way that brought Judith to appear like a scholar.</p><p>The pair of glasses that she didn’t need but used to lessen the attention of herself just reinforced that look.</p><p>She had little make-up, mostly because she just wanted to let her skin breath, after years of being used to that heavy camouflage for her missions and she had just straightened her short bob, a hairstyle she felt a bit unsure about since she had never had hair this short.</p><p>And they were uncomfortable for both training and sleeping.</p><p>But it made Judith feel like a different person.</p><p>A new one.</p><p>“… aren’t you going to change?” mumbled Judith, looking at Dick’s uniform “… I am not risking of being caught with a cop, it would ruin my reputation”.</p><p>“Don’t worry, Jude” that nickname, fuck had Damian told him about that too? “… I’ll change with a small stop at my apartment”.</p><p>“Oh, you do want me to follow you in your apartment” and she fanned herself lightly as Dick just faked an offended expression.</p><p>“To think I would taint your innocence!”.</p><p>“If you are finished master Dick and Mrs. Molina…” more like ‘you two buffoons’, that’s what Alfred meant “… I’ll get back to my duties and wish you a lovely day”.</p><p>“Have a lovely day, as well, Alfred” replied softly Dick, moving forward as he shot Judith a look as if to say ‘come on’ and she did follow him, gently hooking an arm on his own, a gesture that surprised him and made him still his steps for a minute, and then he was flamboyantly opening the door of his care for her.</p><p>And she risked of stepping onto what looked like newspaper articles.</p><p>Basically scattered everywhere.</p><p>And when Dick saw where her gaze was set, he gave her an apologetical look and then tried to get a few Starbucks container in the backseat.</p><p>“Don’t say it” he muttered when he saw Judith’s eye sparkle with pure unadulterated sarcasm.</p><p>“… I have seen rubbish dumps cleaner”.</p><p>“No, you haven’t. You look like somebody who hasn’t touched a rubbish bag in a long time” he shot back.</p><p>It was obvious he meant the comment to be laughed off.</p><p>But something in Judith was hurt by what he had said.</p><p>“You are right, it is since I have stopped living in the Narrows that I haven’t picked up a rubbish bag…” that would have been enough to hit Dick and she saw his surprised expression in the front mirror of the car.</p><p>At least now she knew that he hadn’t seen her private file in the bat-computer.</p><p>She knew that both Bruce and Babs had access to it and knowing (from the family gossip) she and Dick they had been together, Judith expected him to already know that before she had been taken in by the League, she had lived in the Narrows with her grandmother, an impoverished Gotham socialite that had always thought that her daughter had done the mistake of her life, marrying her father.</p><p>She had heard worse adjectives from her grandmother’s mouth and now that she knew how to shatter a wrist with a few fingers, she almost wished her grandmother was still alive to show her what her ‘mixed’ granddaughter could do.</p><p>“… and then you know…  it was always body bags”.</p><p>She thought that Dick would open her door and push her to go back in the room, reclining her invitation.</p><p>Which she thought was partially the reason behind why she was acting such a bitch after his gentle offer.</p><p>She had been constantly taught to repress her emotions.</p><p>To act as a bitch, when she wasn’t meant to be seductive.</p><p>And now she didn’t know how to be a civil human being.</p><p>And Dick’s silence  was definitely scary.</p><p>“… I am sorry for my comment being insensitive…” his voice was not perfect, that’s the first thing that Judith noticed, it was pained and angry in a way that was simply directed to himself “… I didn’t know…”.</p><p>“I thought you did…” that was insensitive of her, but she would have preferred not to sugarcoat it “… I thought that either Damian spilled the beans or…”.</p><p>“Wait, you also say ‘spill the beans’?” she allowed Dick to change the subject, although he forced himself not to meet her gaze “… I thought only the oldies said…”.</p><p>“I am old, Dick” she replied, his name catching him off guard “… at least according to the little shit”.</p><p>“Well, that makes two of us”.</p><p>And then he started the car.</p><p>And Judith had never loved anything more than the sound of a starting cart.</p><p>Although it seemed to need an oil change, considering that it was basically choking onto steam.</p><p>For the first half hour of driving, Judith had to quell her uneasiness with the music on the radio.</p><p>And then Dick got over whatever internal confusion he had inside of himself.</p><p>“I didn’t know that you… I just… I just knew about the incident” it took Judith just a flutter of her lids to see again the flames and hear the sirens and the… fucking… rotting smell “… and Damian wouldn’t tell me anything, if not properly bribed”.</p><p>“He used to order me around, when he was four” she retorted “… and don’t worry, I mean… I think it was insensitive as fuck as the children say these days… but it isn’t the worst thing I ever heard, and I had a shitty childhood believe me”.</p><p>“… you had to, to match up with us” he joked lightly, his gaze stormy set up on the road ahead.</p><p>Judith wanted to ask him whether she could drive on the way back.</p><p>She missed the sensation of driving for a long time.</p><p>With Bruce and Alfred the max that she could go without a call were fifteen minutes.</p><p>“… after the incident…” ‘why the fuck… are you telling him something that you haven’t told to anybody, in ten years’ “… my grandma took me in, and I soon discovered why my mamà flew away from that pinche bitch”.</p><p>Her grandma had fought for her custody and her father’s side was mostly dead or associated with the League, so they hadn’t fought for her and in the end, Judith had ended up with her grandmother, a horrible human truly.</p><p>She had been taught how to become a proper lady with a cane and insults.</p><p>“… and when she died, when I was just out of high school. The League swept in and told me that I could either come with them willingly or I would be drugged and then brought there to execute the Destiny that my father left uncompleted” it felt strange to reminisce somebody who she wasn’t anymore “… I chose the drug option”.</p><p>“Then I do think that the rest is obvious” because Judith somehow felt like she couldn’t talk about the rest with Dick.</p><p>Not because he didn’t deserve it, but somehow…</p><p>… it made her feel a bit purer.</p><p>“I did read on that”.</p><p>Why wasn’t she surprised?</p><p>But she was glad of not having to talk about that with Dick.</p><p>Not in that moment, when she couldn’t run.</p><p>Well, she could open the car and throw herself out.</p><p>She had already done it,</p><p>But she preferred not to ruin the expensive sweater, she was wearing.</p><p>“… but I am…” he seemed to have quite a problematic talking with her.</p><p>She didn’t know whether she would think it was flattering or not.</p><p>“… sorry”.</p><p>“It’s alright, I already told you” she shot back “… you don’t know me, as much as I don’t know you”.</p><p>‘So, it doesn’t make sense that you are acting as my best friend’ she wanted to add.</p><p>But that would have sounded like she had spent too much time with Damian.</p><p>Which was partially true.</p><p>“… I grew up in a circus, my parents were acrobats and they died during a set up in one of their shows…” it was a blabber of words that got Judith to turn to Dick, whose stare was fixed onto the road, but it seemed so unfocused and hazed that she was surprised they didn’t end up in an accident “… Bruce took me in and I became Robin and then… when I and Bruce broke apart… I became Nightwing…”.</p><p>“Oh nice” Judith truly didn’t know what to say, mostly because it felt damnably intimate and yet the way he said was as antiseptic as she had been when Judith had explained her own life.</p><p>As if that could somehow detach them from the events.</p><p>Except it didn’t.</p><p>It would have never worked fully.</p><p>She had known about Dick Grayson.</p><p>Even before she shared a roof with him.</p><p>Talia was obsessed with Bruce and everyone involved with him.</p><p>During her training, she had met a zombie Jason Todd, when he was a guest in the League of Assassins.</p><p>She had known everything about the bats, so she knew about Dick being Robin.</p><p>Of his family being dead and of his talent with aerial exercises.</p><p>But back then Judith hadn’t been allowed to think what it meant.</p><p>To feel something about it.</p><p>“… I mean… no nice… but…” how do you learn how to act like a human when you had been programmed to be a weapon “… thank you for letting me know”.</p><p>“And I did throw out the trash, although…” he sent a slight look around the ‘crowded’ car “… I have been a bit busy… with a case”.</p><p>“I do have the tetanic shot in me, just in case”.</p><p>“Did the sassiness came with the training?” he shot back, making Judith laugh loudly.</p><p>Maybe a bit more loudly than she should have.</p><p>But it felt good to let out that sound.</p><p>“… no, but it did come with being drowned in the Jesus’ pool” that got them almost slammed against the car in front of them “… eyes on the road, boy wonder! And I was joking… about the Jesus’ pool… was never fully drowned in it…”.</p><p>“Thank God” breathed out Dick, as he regained control of the steering wheel and Judith waited till it was safe, to complete her thought.</p><p>“… just drank from it, you know”.</p><p>Dick definitely ruined his brakes that day.</p><hr/><p>They had stopped a bit before the gallery opening for Dick to go to his house and change in something more civilian.</p><p>Judith had smirked when he had collected a good dose of trash to throw in the bin outside of his apartment, meanwhile he grumbled ‘that it wasn’t solely his fault, but also of their fellow gremlin on who they shared custody’.</p><p>‘… that makes us sound like his parents’ she had shouted at him, meanwhile he finished the swift cleaning.</p><p>‘We are kind of his parents’ he said as if it was obvious ‘… you were the one who taught him how to arm a gun and I was the one who taught him how to tie his shoelaces’.</p><p>She flipped him off and shouted him to hurry at that.</p><p>Judith didn’t think that Damian thought of her as a parent figure.</p><p>She knew that he saw her as an older sister or the alcoholic aunt of the family.</p><p>And she was thankful for that because she knew that some revelations that they shared wouldn’t have ever happened, if it had been even slightly different, because in the end Damian needed someone to be close with and somebody with whom he flt like he could confide in.</p><p>Dick was in a similar role as hers with the midget, but Judith had the hint that Damian definitely looked up to him, as a role model, much more than he did with Bruce, because he was closer to reach with and talk to.</p><p>But also, Batman held a darkness that Damian was trying to ban away from his life.</p><p>And Judith would have held his hands if he darkness ever befell him.</p><p>She knew darkness and had walked in it, before.</p><p>And now she was stuck in the limbo between it and a new light.</p><p>And she knew she had to choose, soon.</p><p>Judith was in this kind of deep conversations when Dick tried to startle her appearing on the window of the car, just to get a crooked eyebrow from her, meanwhile she wielded her surprised hands into stilling and stop trembling.</p><p>“Stop being a robot” Dick muttered as he joined you in the car, starting up again.</p><p>“Just get better jokes, Disaster Dick”.</p><p>“That sounds cool, do you mind if I steal it from you?”.</p><p>“It isn’t copyrighted”.</p><p>And then they speeded off in a harmless silence as they reached the gallery exhibition, hosted in a modest building in the richest part of the city and Judith was thankful that being morning, the place wasn’t overcrowded with pricey coats and expensive pearls.</p><p>Because it would have made her feel underdressed.</p><p>Dick beside her was also in a more casual outfit, a grey button down with a black sweater over it and normal jeans to match the whole set up, but not only he was a man so always excused for his bad taste, but he also had a confidence in wearing it that was a shield to any bad glares, coming their way.</p><p>Not that there were since they were the only ones in the gallery, once they entered it.</p><p>They had arrived in time to get free tickets and the lady at the entrance definitely looked unconvinced by their interest, just to get surprised when Judith recognized a picture and sprinted to it, Dick following her in tow.</p><p>And then it happened.</p><p>Dick lightly hooked their arms together.</p><p>“… don’t leave me behind, please” he muttered lightly, as she shot him a confused look, his grip relaxing itself “… I am going to get confused and seriously end up staring at a stain on the wall and psycho-analyzing it”.</p><p>“Didn’t Batman teach you how to recognize art?” Judith tried not to focus on the warmth of his hand, in the crook of her elbow.</p><p>“… he did” he muttered, his fingers lightly pinching her there, gaining a playful slap on his arm, as if to say: ‘don’t tease me’.</p><p>And she was surprised by how it all seemed so natural.</p><p>“… but just art and not what a box of tomato juice in a stand might mean”.</p><p>‘Ok, Judith, it is alright to be touch-starved’ she tried to reason with herself, as Dick’s grip became steadier but not tighter, allowing her to move away if she wanted to ‘… but not with Dick Grayson! He is way out of a league and has a ‘hero complex’ and we are nobody’s damsel in distress’.</p><p>“… it means the annoyance of human people towards the need to add a bit of color in their life” she was sprouting nonsense but the smile on Dick’s face was worth it.</p><p>And the laughter that got them two annoyed looks by the lady at the ticket place was also worth it.</p><p>‘Judith, don’t fall down the rabbit hole’.</p><p>And yet his hand stayed in the crook of her elbow the whole time they spent at the gallery, which was an hour and half, because the place wasn’t as big as it seemed and they weren’t allowed in the back where they sold the pictures, since they weren’t able to buy them.</p><p>‘I could still take a look to see if they have anything to gift to Bruce for Christmas’.</p><p>‘For half the price, I’ll get you a picture of me flipping him off’.</p><p>‘Ok, love that idea’.</p><p>Aside the fact that she had had quite her fun with Dick’s commentary, the visit at the gallery had definitely made Judith’s heart still a bit and go back to its original rhythm, as if it was her safe place.</p><p>Her own comfort zone.</p><p>It had felt good, she couldn’t deny it.</p><p>And she made sure to thank Dick for bringing her there.</p><p>‘… you might have no idea… but it was a wonderful day’ Judith said, as they sat their ass down at the diner that Dick had chosen for their lunch.</p><p>His eyes raised surprised from the menu he was consulting, meanwhile Judith tried to busy herself her own, seeing a waitress that was waiting for them to order intensely, glaring at her for having entered with such a hottie like Dick.</p><p>Well, she could go kindly back off.</p><p>“I am glad to know that” he replied, once he got over the shock, and Judith realized something.</p><p>He hadn’t realized that he had done a good thing.</p><p>“… you talked about your mother being an art curator, and I thought that you might be interested in this kind of stuff, but also… I didn’t mean…”.</p><p>He hadn’t wanted to bring back bad memories.</p><p>She understood it.</p><p>But it had seemed a whole new experience.</p><p>“… don’t worry, it was a nice experience” Judith replied, her hand daring the first move towards his arm, knowing that it always helped to ease up some anxiety “… I should bring you out more often…”.</p><p>“Who am I to say no to a date with a hot assassin?”.</p><p>Judith was used to people complimenting her appearance.</p><p>She was supposed to be the one who was all cool.</p><p>But she fucking blushed.</p><p>Fuck.</p><p>Dick noticed it, laughing at her reaction and the hand on his arm slapped him lightly, as the waitress appeared to take their orders, asking whether they were here on a date or not, and as her gaze skimmed onto Dick, Judith pushed herself between her and him with a sickly sweet smile.</p><p>“We are on our first date, but…” and she acted a lovesick gaze on Dick “… I hope there’ll be more”.</p><p>Dick got the hint and gently pushed a hand over the table to take Judith’s.</p><p>“… of course, Jude” he replied with a breathy sight, so fake that it hurt “… my sweet applepie.</p><p>Once the waitress was out, Judith shot him another look:</p><p>“… applepie?”.</p><p>“The best cake ever!”.</p><p>“I’ll stab you”.</p><p>“There is only a spoon”.</p><p>“Hasn’t Damian ever threatened you with a spoon?”.</p><p>They both laughed at that.</p><p>And when another waitress came with their orders, they settled in the comfortable silence they had missed on their trip in the car.</p><p>“… so, if you liked the gallery, just wondering but… would you consider working in it?”.</p><p>Wait…</p><p>“… ahem, I’d have to send them my curriculum and I am not sure that I could ever do it… like should I put ‘assassin’ or ‘mercenary’ in it…”.</p><p>“You don’t have to put either” replied Dick “… let’s just say that I know somebody who works in there and I know they are searching for new faces for mostly tour-guides or such, and you wouldn’t need to like… have a massive knowledge, but…”.</p><p>“Oh fuck, I forgot that Gotham run on nepotism”.</p><p>“It’s Blundhaven” an adorable blush was in front of Dick’s cheeks “… and I am sorry if it… annoyed you… or insulted you”.</p><p>“… it didn’t” it was a sweet thought, and it didn’t come from Bruce, so it was nice.</p><p>But she didn’t know whether it was ethically proper for her to accept this.</p><p>But in the end, when had ethics ever mattered all that much to her?</p><p>She wasn’t amoral.</p><p>She just always put her life above everything, in the very typical ‘mors tua, vita mea’.</p><p>But right now, this felt… like too easy.</p><p>“… I just… there are probably better people suited for the job”.</p><p>“Judith… not to be like… flaunting your best qualities… but like… you are good” muttered Dick, with his eyes staring into her “… very smart and you have skills in the fighting department, which I don’t think that many would have, and in the end, I just… it is just a good word, if they see you and recognize you as a ruthless killer, which I found difficult to believe… they won’t take you, that’s all”.</p><p>Dick made it seem easy.</p><p>He made everything appear easy.</p><p>But could she do it?</p><p>Like it felt like she was taking advantage of people, again.</p><p>It had been all she had done during her life at the League.</p><p>But the reason why she had agreed to Bruce’s deal in the end was to make a better life and to make sure that the marks on her back, one for each of her victims, would be a reminder that each day was truly a gift, and that even if Judith didn’t want to live, she should have lived for them.</p><p>And in the end, she accepted Dick’s proposal.</p><p>They might not even hire her, in the end.</p><p>Her CV was basically blank and she had solely her high school diploma, stored somewhere.</p><p>“… ok, boy wonder” she muttered, moving to happily slurp on the glass of lemonade she had ordered alongside her big hamburger with everything greasy in it, the whole thing making her mouth water, although her mind was very much interested on how Dick had done so much for her.</p><p>And hadn’t wanted anything back.</p><p>Which made this seem like a trick.</p><p>Was this some kind of sick exam from Bruce?</p><p>“… I thought it might have been a nice idea…” although Judith had wandered her eyes away from him, Dick continued to talk, lightly poking his burrito with a small fry, almost making it seem like he was testing it as a fearsome enemy “… like you said you wanted to start again… and that you wouldn’t want money from Bruce… and … I thought you might… want this job for that…”.</p><p>Wow.</p><p>Nobody had ever done something so sweet for her.</p><p>“It is just…” in the end if they had to talk it was better for her to get out what she was thinking “… just that nobody has ever done so much for me… without… you know…”.</p><p>“You owe me nothing! I just…!” Dick almost bolted up from the chair, as Judith shot him an amused look.</p><p>“I know Dick, don’t worry” Judith shot back, gently pushing him back in the chair “… but all of this… is strange for me, since it isn’t what I am used to, and this is why I am an idiot at handling of this… it isn’t on you… it just that…”</p><p>“It’s okay” Dick’s voice was strangely sturdy, holding Judith when she was halfway through not knowing what to do “… I know that I don’t look like it, but I was adopted by a millionaire…”.</p><p>“Billionaire, technically”.</p><p>“… and I get the whole… not being worth of the ground you walk on… I mean partially… I wasn’t raised in a murder cult…”.</p><p>“I’ll suggest that name to Ra’s”.</p><p>“Either way” his hands reached Judith’s that were onto his shoulders and gently grabbed them softly “… you do deserve everything that is offered, free and without people making you feel bad for it, as long as it makes you happy”.</p><p>“… did you read that in some self-help book” she couldn’t let him see that she appreciated that.</p><p>But he seemed to understand that.</p><p>“Do you have any suggestions about them?”.</p><hr/><p>Judith fell onto her bed, although it was basically 5 p.m. and she had a sparring session with Cass in half an hour, which meant that the small dancer would have beaten her ass, but she thought that she could take that humiliation, since she had lost all her dignity with Dick, on their ‘date’.</p><p>She felt exhausted, although she was aware that it wasn’t due to any kind of sickness, but simply the fact that she had spent a whole day outside of the house, which hadn’t happened in a good month and with somebody who she enjoyed spending the time with, apparently.</p><p>Galas didn’t ask for the same level of interest and she could just push herself in her own mental comfort zone.</p><p>Dick asked something from her.</p><p>And yet, she felt like today was one of the best days she had ever had.</p><p>And Judith had a meeting with the gallery the following Monday, for which she was extremely excited, enough that maybe just maybe… she would be able to properly focus on doing a few researches, and indeed put up some sort of curriculum vitae for herself.</p><p>Technically she had been interned in the jail, with a different name, since she had assumed another identity from the Judith Molina of Gotham, taking on her mother’s name and surname when she had entered the League of Assassin, in the documents she would need after her own were burned to ensure she wouldn’t run away.</p><p>Bruce had them done after she exited the prison and now, she was back to being Judith Molina.</p><p>She was sure that she could come up with an elaborated lie to make sure that people didn’t question too much her absence from Gotham for the ten years she had spent at the League.</p><p>The fact that she had to lie about such a thing didn’t please her fully.</p><p>But she knew perfectly that if she hadn’t done this, they’d have taken a look at her surname and the fact that she had been in jail, for multiple murders nonetheless, and deemed that she wasn’t what they wanted, although as Dick had said Judith had the talent.</p><p>Or so she hoped.</p><p>They wouldn’t have given her a second chance, like Bruce.</p><p>For the moment she chose to push down all the guilt, to try to adjust herself and get her mind mentally ready to be beaten down by a child younger than her.</p><p>Did Talia feel this way when Judith finally managed to strike her down?</p><p>Wait… no… she wasn’t … going down that road.</p><p>She heard steps coming to her unlocked door, and then the door opening, and she wasn’t in the slightest surprised when Damian walked in with a frown on his face.</p><p>Judith knew that he wasn’t happy of she and Grayson fucking off in the sunset that day, effectively leaving him alone.</p><p>She had sent him a text to let him know that sadly she wouldn’t be picking him up from school alongside Alfred that day, since she was out with Grayson, receiving an answer in French, which was a language that Judith refused to learn, and Damian knew that perfectly.</p><p>So, he had done it on purpose, the little shit.</p><p>She had still gathered from the few emoticons she used that he wasn’t happy.</p><p>“… you are pathetic, Molina” back to surnames basis, he was certainly not in the best mood and Judith did the effort to turn around and face him “… you were supposed to be my mother’s heir and here you are, posing on your bed like a sack of potatoes”.</p><p>“Listen…” she shot back, as the boy came forward, although his whole body tensed, but allowed Judith to gently bring him closer, his whole body gently relaxing which made Judith understand that they weren’t to the point of no return, just yet “… you are a sack of potatoes”.</p><p>When everything that you had owned was to be shared among your own murder cult, it was easy to grow jealous around the things that surrounded you.</p><p>And when you were used to treating people as discardable things, it was easy to mistake them for simply that.</p><p>“… pathetic, indeed, Molina” he muttered but allowed himself to be brought in Judith’s embrace, although he refused to acknowledge it and to accept it, which was probably his way to hold his grudge towards her.</p><p>But Judith had whole years of trying to get through his walls, so she knew that once she showed him what she got him at the gallery he might just forgive her.</p><p>In the end, he had also recently discovered of being the younger brother among six siblings and more (she honestly didn’t know how many more there were, but she knew that Bruce had more orphans in his sleeves), so sometimes he just wanted to be a bit babied.</p><p>And spoiled.</p><p>“… get my bag, pathetic Wayne” she retorted, and Damian shot her a small look as if to say ‘who do you take me for? Pennyworth?’.</p><p>Well, Judith would have a talk with Alfred about making Damian doe a few chores around the house.</p><p>It might be helpful to remind him that although they all babied him, he wasn’t allowed to be a brat.</p><p>“Did Dick make your legs become jelly?” he must have heard it at school, she was sure, but that didn’t mean that it got any less reaction from her, as her cheeks blushed red.</p><p>“Stop with the sass and get my bag or you won’t get your present” that got a reaction from the brat, who didn’t allow her to see his surprised face at the thought, although his whole body finally relaxed wholly against her and he did rush to her bag, discarded onto her desk.</p><p>He brought the bag to her, resisting from dripping his hand inside and getting the gift, probably to seem disinterested and cool, meanwhile Judith simply took the bag from him and after a few minutes of rummaging got a slice of pie that Dick had bought for him, since ‘it was his favorite’, and a catalogue of the art exhibition.</p><p>Judith had constantly approved and supported Damian’s interest for art, although she knew that Ra’s didn’t approve, but she would always sneak a catalogue or a brochure of the art exhibitions that she had visited to him and Damian’s eyes brightened immediately as his hands carefully touched gently the pages.</p><p>He moved his hands through them for a few minutes, before he slammed strongly the book and took the discarded slice of apple pie in its plastic container, balancing it inside the palm of his hand, meanwhile he slipped the book underneath his armpit.</p><p>He didn’t say ‘thank you’, but he shot a rather bright look to Judith.</p><p>“Does the Head of the Demon accept my humble offer?” she joked, as she did whenever back in the League of Assassins, they played the roles of the king and its loyal subject, sometimes Judith using her own strength to get her annoyed king to swing in her arms and be allowed to be his age.</p><p>“Very much so, Judith” good, that was good “… if you’d like to entertain the thought of a liaison with Dick, I wouldn’t be against it. He certainly isn’t as dignified, and neither would give you the life of luxury you deserve but… he is a good man”.</p><p>Was she…</p><p>Was Damian pimping her out to Dick.</p><p>“Ahem… Damian… that’s nice of you to approve of Richard, but like…” how do you explain to a child that yes, you like Dick and think he is a very nice person, but that he is too much for you “… it isn’t that way”.</p><p>Damian didn’t seem to fully understand it but chose to let it all go.</p><p>And just focus on his new book.</p><p>For which Judith was glad, since she didn’t know if she could stand the embarrassment of explaining to a child that relationships weren’t her thing.</p><p>He exited the room, suggesting that she come in her room after dinner so that they could discuss about the gallery.</p><p>And Judith decided to get herself ready for the sparring lesson, changing into comfortable clothes and meanwhile she was putting her hair in a ponytail, her phone dinged and in her rummaging of her bag, the phone had ended up on her bed, so she saw immediately the notifications as she went over to get it.</p><p>It was Dick.</p><p>Well.</p><p>‘… if you want, I seem to have the weekend off. I can help you with your CV’.</p><p>And who was she to say no to that?</p><p> </p>
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